PUT UP YOUR HANDS

Just blocked an entry on my FB page. From an African American FORMER sheriff. Hint. It's the guy who used to parade with a chest full of medals he never earned and an outsize stetson. All about how Americans are a mouthy, phone camera wielding bunch of ingrates. The last might be a little harsh but, put up your hands, obey no matter what. And all about the sacrifices members of law enforcement make.

 OK I'm being a little harsh. Last time I checked it was more dangerous to be a logger or ride a crab boat to Alaska than it is to be a cop. And cops aren't the only ones who work holidays and night shifts.

But you know what fries this daughter of the British Isles? What if those kids sitting in at lunch counters had just obeyed orders. What if the Freedom Riders had stayed home? What if the kids who came south to work to get people registered to vote had stayed home? When most of the adults were in jail in Birmingham the school kids stepped up. They faced police dogs and fired hoses and it was all on the evening news.

News flash bro. Americans have always been pretty mouthy. Especially the ones from New England and what became sections of New York and New Jersey. New England may have emphasied public order over individual liberties but only to a pont. If the Minute Men at Lexington and Concord had just said OK and gone home we might be carrying different passports. I didn't bother with the FB entry. Not enough room. And to be honest this journal sometimes serves as a great place to vent.

And imagine. If we'd had some kind of quick way to take pictures and make them public there just might have been fewer lynchings, massacres and other acts of violence against African Amreicans and other minorities.